So we thought we'd give San Jose the flick today and go and see an active (steam and ash not lava) volcano - The Volcan Poas National Park is only 47 kms from San Jose so we thought a half day trip was just fine thanks.

Our survey says...uh uh!

It took 3.5 hours to get there! San Jose's traffic is just unbelievable, there's a mad one way system through the city which made the multiple hotel pick ups tedious, add to that the actual volume of traffic on the streets a possible power outage (there were power lines across the road) and some talk of demonstrations that have been going on for a while blocking some of the major roads and you have a pandemonium. After the second hour you just had to sit back and enjoy the ride - no one could have predicted it and the driver and guide were as exasperated as the rest of us

. Problem was we only got an hour there once we'd arrived and it was time to get back in the bus to come back again.

The road up to the volcano was nice - lots of blue gum and bottle brush trees (really) and lots of cows - all a bit "Heidi-ish".

The volcano sits at 2500m or so and was covered in cloud as predicted yesterday so we wandered up another 100m to look at another crater lake - that was clear. It seems to be the day trip of choice as it was full of tourists and school trips - both Costa Rican and US. On the way down again the wind had blown away the clouds so we got a 30 second or so clear view before the heavens were unzipped and a tonne of rain came down - all part of the fun.

Another early start tomorrow off to La Fortuna and the Volcan Arenal (Costa Rica is full of volcanoes)